Evaluation Question 3 What have you learned from your audience

feedback?
Interview Script
Interviewer: Thank you Ryan Murphy for that fantastic piece on the
importance of opening sequences, thus making successful TV shows. But
here, right now, we have with us the delightful Katie Ranns to discuss with
us about how audience research impacted the production of her newest
release, Caring for Feathers.
Ranns: Hi everyone
Interviewer: So youre fairly new to the film industry but already youve
made quite the impact with last years film debut, Sharp. It was a social
realism that had gotten a widely positive reception for its skill in
representing societal problems often swept under the rug, and so now
youve continued down this route of realism, resulting in the creation of
Caring for Feathers. So tell us, when planning your latest release, how
did you establish your audience? What kind of research did you do to
ensure who the best audience for your product would be?
Ranns: Well firstly it must be said that any form of audience research is
vital at any stage of production even when you think the results are
meaningless, they will often be helpful in some way or another: giving you
new ideas and influences, and when you dont agree with an answer, this
often steers you into the right direction.
When researching my potential audience, I approached this by using a
quantitative questionnaire that asked a wide range of participants, both
media literate and less so, about their knowledge of short films, using
social realism as a genre basis for the questions. The results showed that
a youth orientated audience were most media literate and understood the
nature of social realism far better than any other group. It was because of
this I decided that this 11-20 year old age group were the best choice for a
target demographic theyre more likely to understand and appreciate my
work far better.
Interviewer: Yes it is very important that your audience is going to
understand the text to at least some degree or there really is no purpose
for them to interact with it. But how did this research impact your own
work, or creative process if you will?
Ranns: Well the other aspects of the quantitative questions revolved
around genre preference and their knowledge of social realism
conventions i.e. the representation of issues and themes in realist texts

and which they feel should be more/less represented in future media

products. The research showed that issues of neglect and the theme of
enlightenment were thought to need more address, and the majority
prefer aspects of the thriller and horror genre. My creative process was
influenced as the feedback shaped the genre elements I incorporated,
such as dark narrative elements resembling the horror and realist genre.
The context of my narrative was affected as it confirmed my original idea
of using neglect as one of the main issues to feature in my film.
Interviewer: Speaking of influence, were you inspired by any other
professional texts? Did the feedback change your original plans or help in
any way?
Ranns: Inspiration was taken from when I conducted a focus group
research on another realist text, Cubs, by Tom Harper. I made sure my
participants were media educated so they were able to answer qualitative
questions regarding this niche and specific realist text, and so the
feedback returned was more informed and likely to make sense. This
research used Cubs as an exemplar text in order to gather information
about what aspects were thought to make it a successful short. Aspects
such as why it was engaging, why the characters were interesting, how
realistic the narrative was and how well it followed conventions of social
realism like its issues and themes and the meaning/message of the film.
This research allowed me to quote, analyse, compare, conclude and
create action statements based on the responses. The results highlighted
in Cubs that mystery and internal conflict of the characters kept it
interesting. The naturalistic settings were great but the uniqueness of the
narrative, therefore perceived as unrealistic, and caused its realism to
diminish. This helped me see that once I had created a narrative of my
own Id need to conduct research to make sure it was perceived as
realistic and follows the conventions of social realism. The results also told
me that the issues and themes were closely tied to the meaning and
messages of the text to drive a bigger impact.
Interviewer: But what did you learn? What did this feedback tell you
about your own film? Or advise you to do?
Ranns: Well the way I structured my analysis of this research was by
forming action statements based on the results. I learned that to entice
the audience there must be a sense of mystery hovering over the
narrative as well as visible internal conflict of key characters. Naturalistic
settings were a must but also to keep the narrative realistic and use
familiar concepts so the audience is able to relate to it, granting my film
to be more successful. This research helped me plan the basis for my

issues and themes were surrounding the youth and that they will heavily
tie into my overall message for maximum impact.
Interviewer: So youve got ideas and plans on what to include in your
narrative from these pieces of audience research, but when writing the
synopsis and script, did any audience research influence this process?
What helped you get from a to b to c and so on until you got to your final
version?
Ranns: Writing for me is a difficult task. I have so many ideas but at the
same time I have so many criticisms of these ideas, making it hard to
focus on forming just one. After every draft of both synopsis and script, a
meeting with my editor advisor gave me feedback on what was missing
and what needed improvement. For instance, I believed my first draft idea
for my synopsis was weak and not as good as it could be so I scrapped it.
We then discussed ideas and it was suggested that I use a personal
experience for inspiration, thus the plot of a young girl discovering an
injured bird. Each feedback session offered conjoined ideas for ways of
improvement, such as the introduction of violence and drugs to give the
synopsis meaning more of an impact. Also, I learnt ways of improving the
narrative aspects and flow of the script and how to follow the professional
conventions of script writing. Any form of feedback is worth having
Interviewer: I agree. But now moving away from your production, what
about the other aspects of creating a film the exhibition features if you
will. You personally created both the poster and the template in which a
review was written. Firstly, how did you begin to make these? What
research was conducted, if any, that helped you through these tough
creative processes?
Ranns: Well my poster took some time to develop because I was unsure
which template would be best to use, so I placed versions of the two
templates into an online survey (surveymonkey) and sent it to and asked
my target audience to respond. The feedback was both qualitative and
quantitative where a chose was made and then they explained the
reasons why. The results favoured a red background and black box, and
being media literate respondents and media literate myself I agreed with
their chose and explanations because of the connotations of the colours
which strongly related to my film. This was very helpful as it kicked
started my creative process and inspired me to develop the chosen
template with confidence.
Interviewer: And what about more than just the template? Did you have
different drafts of the same poster? Did you get stuck on any particular
feature of your final poster design?

Ranns: I used a mix of quantitative and qualitative questionnaire styles

that were given to members of my audience demographic. After deciding
on a template, again I couldnt decide on a title for my film. I came up
with a draft of titles, some I liked more than others, all heavily relating to
my script, and in the form of quantitative questions I asked my target
demographic which they preferred and if they had any title suggestions
and I realised whilst conducting this research which title I was going to use
even before the results came back. Thankfully, the feedback also agreed
with me. Then I finalised a draft, placed the images, text, typical award
laurels, review quotes etc. I conducted qualitative research on media
literate participants regarding the authenticity and effectiveness of my
poster, asking questions such as what are your preconceptions about the
film and questions requesting suggestions for improving it. There was the
issue that there was too much negative space in the lower half of the
poster so I created different versions, all that I liked, and, again,
conducted research asking the respondents which they thought was most
appropriate. This research enabled me to create the final draft of my
poster
Interview: And what of the review? How did you know when it was ready
for publishing?
Ranns: I crafted a couple drafts of the review and through the use of
qualitative audience research I was able to advance. The questions, much
like the poster, were asking about the reviews authenticity had it used
traditional conventions well, what needed to be improved, do you have
any suggestions that sort of thing. There were also questions asking for
suggestions on how to challenge or develop upon traditional film review
conventions to make it slightly different. The results praised and criticised
aspects of my review, suggesting improvement methods such as use a
different font size or style, maybe the bar at the top could be a different
colour because it clashes with the image used, make the synopsis box
different colours. Taking the results into account I learned ways of
challenging and developing on traditional conventions by using a nonproduction-still image, having a mixture of font sizes and by making the
synopsis box vary in gradient.
Interviewer: Well thank you very much Miss Ranns, its been a pleasure
talking to you